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S: Life & Story of Lucy Smith

BC: This was on our 50th Anniversary in 1954,He lived seven years after this was made. I still miss him today

FC: Life & Story Of Lucy Smith

1: This is going to be a story of my Life, I can't remember every thing that happen along the way, But I know one thing, I met this Man, and fell madly in Love with him, There's just something about that smile... | I was born on September,26.1934 To Freeman & Bertha Young in Cookeville Tennessee . I was the Fifth child,my mother first child lived one month and died,they said her throat closed up on her.Then my oldest brother Robert was born in 1927,My Sister Dorothy was born 1930, Brother Charles born,1932. Then me in 1934, My mother had a miscarriage after me,in1936 and then another brother,Ralph in 1938,in 1940 David was born.and then in 1944 Glenn was born.. | 1

2: 2 | I can remember back to when I was about three, But my Mom told me about when I was about eight or nine months old. She was busy washing clothes,and cleaning house,and she set me on the bed to play, we had a cat there.the lady that gave it to her,told her it was a Pershing cat.any way it jump up on the bed with me. and I bite it's ear almost off.I was loving on her, I didn't mean to hurt her.Mom said that cat almost had a fit. they check it,and said it would be all right.And when I was about three my Mom's friend Sarah Clouse ,and her oldest son came for a visit. He beg my Mom to let him adopt me.But she told him no. And in 1940 he went into the Army.He was station in Hawaii,when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.He was on one of the battle ship that was hit. and he was killed. I still have a picture of him and my self,when I was three years old, My Mom gave it to me after I was grown, and said she wanted me to have it.And when I was about seven years old, I remember my Mom telling all us kids to go out and play,because she had work to do. Well my Brother Ralph was about three years old,and we was playing like we was cutting up wood for Mom. I had the ax, and I brought it up and when I started to come down with it Ralph stuck his hand on the chop block . . .

3: 3 | And I cut his finger off.Blood went every where.He scream, and I was screaming, My Mom came running out of the house,and my Dad from the barn.When they seen what had happen, All they said at the time,was to my oldest brother Bob and my sister Dorothy, was watch the kids, and they jump into a wagon to get him to a doctor, The people we rented from lived about a mile from us, and they headed over there . And they took them into town to the Doctor. He said they made good time ,and sew it back on. and it's still working now . | When My Dad and Mom,got back home. I thought I was going to get a good whipping for that, But they said I looked like a ghost when they came in,They just gave me a good talking too. And ask me why I did it. and all I could say was. He shouldn't have put his hand there. they gave me a couple of smack and told me to never touch that ax again.I never did touch the ax again. | We always loved one another,all of us did. Back then you didn't have any neighbor, that lived close to you, no friends hardly at all .So you had only your brothers and sisters to be your friends.Maybe that way people back then had so many children.But I still love my brothers today. .

4: 4 | You know when I was growing up, we didn't have any toys to play with,we invented our own, I remember me and my sister dot,we make us a play house,and would use logs as our furniture,Mud and water for our food, we would make mud pies,and put them on the table and pretend we was having dinner.We had a lot of fun,cause we didn't know there were other things,we could be playing with . | I can remember when my mother got through milking the cow, my brother Chuck would go out there in the barn and squirt milk into me and my sister 's mouth. My sister Dot and brother Chuck both had red hair, So did my brother Bob,and my Mom. But anyway Dot had so many freckles on her face and arms,she almost looked tan. So Chuck told her he knew how to get rid of those freckles for her. She went alone with him, And one day they followed the old cow around, and when she had done her stuff. my brother Chuck took it and spread it all over Dot's face and arms . . | If you know any thing about cow mature,you know when it dry on you it draw your skin up tight. Well he spread it on good and thick. My Mom had just changed the sheets on all the beds, and my sister went into the house and climb into one of the bed to let it dry,my brother told her,it had to dry to do any good. Well my Mom walk into the house,and she got a smell of that and went and pull the covers off of Dot ,

5: 5 | She jerked Dot out of the bed,and went after Chuck. She like to never got that stuff off of Dot's face. Her face looked like a wrinkle-up beet.Chuck was laughing his head off, till Mom got a hold of him.then he changed his tune.Seems like they always like to pick on Dot,One day we was all playing out on the hill up above a creek that run down below, So they were all rolling down the hill in a inner tube from a truck.They had it all blown up and they would put one at a time in the tire and let them go. You were supposed to get out before it hit the fence below. Well it come Dot's turn and they roll her up in there. I thank she was double jointed case she could bend any way. But any way. they started her down the hill and she didn't get out of it in time and hit a big rock and that all that saved her from going into that creek. And those crazy boys stood there laughing their their selfs silly. . | When we went to school we had to walk, No Buses, no cars , walk if you got any where. It was about two miles to school if you walk the way you were supposed too, My brother Chuck,he would take a short cut, When we got close to the highway. He would go down at the creek and swing across the creek on a grape vine,and he always beat us to school. So one day I followed him down there. he kept telling me I was going to get hurt,cause I didn't know how to hold on, Well when he got a hold of the vine,I went up behind him and put my arms around his waist, and went with him across.

6: 6 | I really enjoyed it, he said I could have gotten killed, and I had better not do that again, I just told him, I'll tell Mom what you are doing then and she'll whip you. So guess what, I got to swing too.But you know something me and him had a lot of fun doing that, He said we was Tarzan and I was Jane. My Uncle ,he haul Ice back then and he always brought my Mom's about the time we was coming home from school, so we got to ride on his ice truck home . . | While we still lived at this place, My mother cleaned the house for the people who rented the house to us. her husband own a big clothing store in town, His Name was BobLee Maddox,So the lady ask my Mom if she would like to ride into town with her,and she would treat all of us kid to lunch. We went and she even got us some Ice cream. so when we got home, she was pulling up in her driveway, and I thought she was stopped and opened the door in the back seat and fell out and rolled under the car, She thought she had run over me, and Mom was screaming,cause she said she thought I was dead, But all I got was a little Bruising. | I rolled all the way,under the car.they said the wheel just missed rolling over my body, But I guess,it wasn't my time yo go. | We moved about two miles from that house ,over to one on the highway,The one we lived in.was back in the fields about one and a half miles off the road.But anyway we moved over on the road.it was a smaller house.We don't why they moved into a smaller one .

7: 7 | This is me, When I was 9 Months old. | This picture, is Robert,11,Dorothy,8, Charles, 5 Lucy 2 1/2 | But by this time my brother David was born, so one day all of us bigger ones with some friends,was over in the lot where they had the cow,and pigs.it was a big field, we would go in there to play near the house.We was playing ball, and by this time David was about one and a half.Mom had been washing clothes, and she set David across the fence and told my brother Bob,and sister to watch him. He had a piece of meat in his hand, and we wasn't paying any attention to him, and the old hog got a hold of his hand and started dragging him,we all started yelling for Mom, Now this fence they said was about six feet high,My Mom came running, and jumped ,

8: 8 | that fence and never touch it,She said she thought that hog had killed her Baby.But he was ok, all the pig wanted was the meat he had in his hand. We was living here when My oldest brother got to go into town with some of my cousins,to see a movie.Well the next morning, I wanted to know all about the movie, so he set me upon a little table mom kept by the stove,she had one of those kitchen wood stove with a hearth on it, So he was telling me all about it,and I was setting there and swinging my legs back and forth, and got over balanced,and off I went and hit my nose on that hearth, and Broke it. . | My Mother, pick me up and wash the blood off my face and got a towel and soak it in some cold water,and put it over my nose, and she held my nose for about a half hour or so and it stopped bleeding,and my face was all swollen for about a week or so. But I didn't go to the Doctor and my nose isn't crooked as far as I know. | We had a lot of fun there, cause the house set up on a hill from the road, And if you were playing ball,it would always find it's way down on the road.Then we moved in closer to town,we move in one house,I remember my Brother had this red dog ,he loved that dog and i guess he was just getting old , But he died and I can remember my brother Chuck crying over him. Then we moved little ways from there into another house. My Mom got a job working in a Chicken factory,They pay her two dollars a day,to pull the feathers off dead chickens .

9: 9 | But she did it. That's where we was living when our youngest brother Glenn was born.My Dad had went up to Baltimore Maryland,and got a job, He was supposed to send Money home for us to get by on. He would send a few dollars,every once and a while,But Mom had to go to work ,so that we could get by on. I remember my uncle Ben A.he was working at the saw mill not to far from where we lived, and he got his hand caught in the machine someway,and cut about four of his fingers off. | We use to go down to our Grandma & Grandpa house. and we would ride the train down there. We loved that.And every Christmas we would go there and they would give us a bag with a Apple,Orange and maybe a candy cane for Christmas, and we thought that was the greatest thing you could get.I can remember setting around the big Fireplace. and our Grandpa would wait till the boys setting next to him,would get warm and his pants would start to get hot ,and then my grandpa would crab them on that leg, You talk about hunting ,It hurt . | I can remember when my Aunt got killed up here in Michigan,in a car accident, and they brought here back there to be buried. But she was laid out in my Grandma house,and when we went to bed, some of us, had to sleep in the same room, cause they only had Three great big rooms.The Kitchen, and the other one was the living room and bed room together.And the other one was where they had her at,with two more beds in there,They had taken one down, to make room for her .

10: 10 | You know that didn't seem to brother any of us young ones, and the grown-ups set up all night.Then when I was almost ten years old my Mother,decided to come to Detroit, My Dad had moved here from Maryland. And he still wasn't sending my Mom much Money.Glenn was just a baby,He was born in May and we came up here in July.and I was ten in September, Well let me tell you, my Dad didn't know we was coming, so when we got off the Bus, Mom had told them that me and Chuck was twins, so we both got to come on half fare. He was mad all the way up here.and wouldn't even eat, He kept saying, I'm no twin . Well we made it Detroit,we took a cab from the bus station,And when we got to the place my Dad lived.we was all surprised, It wasn't the way he told my Mom,he was living at. It was a big apartment on West Grand Blvd.off Woodward Avenue.Back then, It was really pretty there and Woodward was safe to walk on.Any way we went up to the door and it was locked. We rang the Doorbell, and there was a lady that lived there, she let us in. She yelled down the stairs come on up.and we went up . . . | She was real nice to us,she invited all of us into her apartment,and served us some cookies and milk.My Mom told her who we was, and we thought she was going to pass out. She said, Mrs Young,I'm sorry but I didn't even know that Freeman was married.Mom said well he is and he has these six kid and the son that was staying with him,before he went into the Navy.She said he lives in the room next door. He only had a sleeping room.

11: 11 | This picture of me & John with Jerry and Sandra,John and myself looks like we are scared. But we wasn't.The one next to it on the bottom, is of all the young siblings, and the one at the top,well just forget that one.

12: 12 | Well My Mom went to the manger,and got the key to the room,and ask if they could give her another room.He gave her one across the hall from where my dad was at. My Dad worked the afternoon shift ,It was about two o'clock when we got there,My brother Chuck wanted to go to a movie,so my Mom let him go.The lady next door,was real nice.she fix us something to eat.and told my Mom she didn't know my Dad was even married.Mom ask her who did she thank the boy was that stayed with my Dad before he went into the Navy. She said he told everyone he was his brother.Well it started to get dark, and we was setting there,and someone rang the bell.Rita was the lady name that lived next door, She went to see who it was,And told the girl that came in, to come on up.She wanted to know if Freeman was home, Well Rita said No,he's at work, But his wife and children are here.That girl almost passed out.She got so weak she ask my Mom if she could set down. She went on to tell my Mom, that she didn't know that Dad was married,and if her father had knew she was going out with a married man,He would have disown her.She told Mom the same thing that Dad had told Rita about My brother being Dad's brother.She was scared to death,you could see it on her face.She told Mom,I will never see him again,and kept telling my Mom how sorry she was.She got up to leave,and my sister Dot,she spied her ring on this girl's finger. Dad had made Dot and me a ring out of a nickel when he worked in Baltimore and gave us,But Dot's was too small and Dad took it

13: 13 | back.And told Dot he would fix it and send it back to her, But he never did. Well when she seen it, She told Mom that woman has my ring on.By this time the girl had went out of the Building and Mom took off after her.She was going down the sidewalk and Mom was yelling for her to stop. My Brother Chuck that went to the Movies was coming home, He didn't know what was going on when Mom ran by him. And grab that girl by the arm. She was scared that Mom was going to hit her,and she started crying, Mom said all I want is my Daughter's ring you have on. He made it for her, and went on to explain what happen. And she took it off and gave it to my Mom.Well we all went to bed,Five of us kids slept in one room and Mom and my baby brother Glenn,went to bed in Dad's room. believe me we didn't get too much sleep,cause when Dad got home that night around midnight,He got it with both barrels,if you know what I mean.But Mom stayed with him. a couple of days later we moved over on Milwaukee St.into a house that had three big rooms,Kitchen, bedroom,living room with a sofa that let down for a bed, And two beds in the other room and a cot that could sleep two.We was living there when World War two ended.I can remember everyone was so happy and setting off fireworks,and blowing horns.My Mom had went and got a Job at the Farm Crest Bakery, She told us we was not to go out while she was working,And the landlady lived upstairs,and kept an eye on us.

14: But my brother Chuck wanted to get out and join in the fun,So he went out the window, and told us not to tell on him. My sister Dot,was fifteen at the time, so that's why Mom went to work,she figure Dot was old enough to watch us.There was six of us.when the war ended in 1945.I was ten years old at the time,I was ten in September.Mom worked days at that time,We moved over on Brooklyn,not to far from the Tiger stadium.That were we thought we had lost Glenn, He got missing one day,and we looked every where for him.My Uncle even come over and went looking for him in his car.Then in about two hours, here comes the Ice cream man on his bike cart,with Glenn setting up on the top eating ice cream. He had followed the Ice cream man. And the man knew who he was,so he brought him home.I was the one that was supposed to have been watching him.Cause he wouldn't go to anyone but me. I was bathing him one day and had him him in a tub of water,and when I went to get his clothes,He got out and went outside cause he heard the bells on the ice cream cart. and took off up the street.He didn't have a stitch of clothes on.And one of the Neighborhood boys.got him and brought him back. He was only about two or three years old.But every where I went . I had to take him with me.or he would scream and cry.If I went to the store for Mom, I had to carry him on one hip, and the grocery on the other.Even when I met John,If we went any where,he had to go,He would call me mommy.Cause he slept with me. | 14

15: Mom worked all the time. And I was with him more than she was,But it all worked out, Cause he knew who his Mom was. You know I love my Dad I guess in a certain way,But I didn't In another way. Does that make sense.? When he was mean to my Mom I hated him. But then he could be so sweet to you. I know the Bible says to Honor your Mother and Father, But when he was hitting her, It was hard to honor him.I got a gun once and told him I would blow his head off, If he hit her again,And I was only about fourteen. He was hitting her for no reason and with a belt buckle at that. He was mean back then, But you know when he seen that my Mom was not afraid of him, He changed.At least he didn't hit her any more. cause she stood up to him.and he backed off.He didn't do right by her,but at least he wasn't hitting her,But there must have been something there cause they liked Five months being married 65 years when he died.He had a heart attack,and fell right across my Mom's lap. he died in 1990,My Mom worked at the Bakery for24 or 25 years and then she retired. We moved over on Buffalo st, and thats where I met the Love of my Life.I don't thank I will ever forget that day. Love him the first time I laid eyes on him. In fact I thank I Love him, before I ever met him. Cause his Father had already told me all about him.You see I met his Dad before I met John. Then his dad got laid off and went back to Kentucky.And John came up here to get him a Job,Thats when my world begun.He got a job, then his Dad came back up | 15

16: here, They stayed with Aunt Rosie foe a while, Then they Moved into a rooming house closer to work, But John would come back over to see me. His Dad went back home, But John worked for a while , He even bought me my Sixteenth Birthday cake. But then he got laid off from work,so he went back home, We wrote to each other,And his father was getting sick, and every time he got a letter from me. His Dad would want him to read it to him too. I always wrote a few lines to him too.John's mother told me after me and John got married, that his dad always looked forward to getting those letters read to him, and when I would mention his name and say a few words to him. that he really enjoyed that. I loved him.He passed away. one year before John and I was married.He was only 56 years old when he died.We | got married one year later,in 1954 This is what John looked like, Isn't | he cute,this picture is of us, a few days,before we got married.I thank we made a good couple.It should last.We loved each other.What do you think.? | 16

17: This is John's Father above, John on the side,And his Father's Funeral below. | 17

18: John,His Mom,sister jean, and brothers ,Bob & Clandus | This is the day after we was Married | This is the day we first met in 1950 | 18

19: This is when we first met in 1950 | That was a happy day for me, Because I married the man of my dreams.He was always so good to me, sometimes I think he was too good for me.And he was so good to my Mother,When we first got married we stayed at the same place he had rented for him, and his Mom, and his brother and sister to live in, But then all of a sudden, His Mom told us that Her, Clandus and Jean was going back down to Kentucky to live. I felt like it was my fault, But she said she only came up here to be with John and to cook for him,and now that he was married, He had someone to be with him, and to cook for him.I always loved his Mom, Her and I always got along good with each other.We stayed there for a little while after that. Then we moved over on Hillger about a block and half from where my Mom and dad lived,We was living there when Jerry was born.This is John and myself holding Jerry. . | 19

20: John was working the afternoon shift at work, and I thank Jerry had his nights and days mixed up,Cause when John got home from work, at 1:00 in the morning. I was still trying to get Jerry to sleep,We tried every think with him, John's Mom told us to use one thing,and my Mom would tell us to use something else,Even the Landlady,who lived upstairs from us. Told us about an old remedy from Czechoslovakia that she used,.But nothing seem to work. So one night I was so tired. I could hardly stay awake, So I just let him cry,He cried for about four hours, and went off to sleep, and slept all night long, and never did give us any more problem about going to sleep at night.We lived there for about a year and half after he was born, Then we moved over on fourteenth st near Stanley.Then I found out I was going to be called Mommy again,And Sandra was born almost two years after Jerry.She was born August 07 and Jerry was two years old on the 09 of August. | This is Sandy,She was one | 20

21: year old here, and then her and Jerry, She was one and he was three.Then just 17 months later I had Little Ronnie . | This is Ronnie,The one on the steps was made in January 1960, the one on the stuffed horse was made in 1959 on Christmas | He was one of the sweetest baby you could ask for, Hardly ever cried.Always smiled at you,whenever you talked to him. He took Bronchial Pneumonia.We was at Church one Sunday night,and when we got home he was coughing real bad,We took him to the Doctor the next day,and they put him in the hospital,I stayed with him while he was there. Back then they had these oxygen tents they put you in. He stayed in that one week.His Doctor was on Vacation, so the one that was taking care of him, sent him home, right after he came out of the tent. Everyone said he was sending him home too soon.I wanted them to keep him a few more days, But they said once the Doctor sign the release,their was nothing they could do.We took him home on Sunday, and rushed him | 21

22: back on Wednesday, He died about an hour and half after we got him back.We didn't Sue, But with the Nurses and our Testimony, That Doctor,lost his license.I was holding on to his little hand when he took his last breath, And John had a hold of his hand also. And he looked over at me, and said,"Honey he's gone," then he started crying so hard.It's took us so long to get over that.But we know he's a little angel in Heaven,God just let us have him for a while, Then he took him back, We always said,that God might have seen something down through the time. and took him. But you know in 1964,The Lord gave us another son,Born in the same month as Ronnie was,And he looked just like Ronnie,So God gave him back to us. | Jerry, Sandra Ronnie John.T. | My Four Little Angels,I love them so much.Two with the Lord,now.They were all six months old in these pictures | 22

23: Back then,We was seeing some rough times,But with the Lord's help we made it,and raised our family in Church. John and me both wanted to make sure our Children knew about the Lord, and what he mean to you. Not just a name you hear,But to know him as a Savior,that will help you,when you call on him.And from the way,they are living, I thank they know what we wanted of them.I'm proud of my Daughter and Son,and their family, I have so far three Beautiful grand daughters, Three Handsome Grand Sons, Nine Grand Children, and six Great Grand Children.